Different Characters, Different Beliefs

In order to make a scene between two characters feel interesting it needs some degree of conflict. That’s fine if one character happens to be a cop and the other a robber, but the story isn’t always going to present you with directly oppositional characters like that.

But even if the characters in a scene don’t have anything to fight over and the scene isn’t highly charged or full of high stakes, you can still give characters something to clash over.

All you need to do is give each character a different script to work from. From a writer’s perspective you know who’s right and who’s wrong in a situation, but the characters don’t know that. As in real life, people are predisposed to think they are in the right, no matter how wrong they might be.

It is an old director’s trick to tell the actor playing the mother that her boy has been the victim of bullying and that the teachers have done nothing to protect him so he’s had to defend himself, and then to tell the actor playing the Headmaster that the boy is the worst bully in the school and enough is enough.

Now, no matter what the conversation will be about, the tone will be combative. How far you take it depends on why they’re meeting, but having those opposing views of the situation guarantees you’ll avoid the doldrums of meaningless pleasantries.

In a scene where you just need some information to be revealed or some dialogue exchanged, it can feel like there’s no point in getting into an argument, and indeed having people at each other’s throats scene after scene will get tiring. But conflict comes in many shapes and sizes.

Mother 1: Charlie’s improved no end since Mr Trumble’s been giving him private lessons.

Mother 2: Really? Do you think he’d take on Billy?

Mother 1: I’m sure he would.

And so little Billy starts getting tutored after school. But the manner in which I showed Mother 2 finding out about Mr Trumble’s after school activities contains no dramatic content whatsoever.

Mother 1: Charlie’s improved no end since Mr Trumble’s been giving him private lessons.

Mother 2: Isn’t that against school rules.

Mother 1: Oh, he doesn’t charge me anything.

Mother 2: He does it for free?

Mother 1: Well, I cook him a meal.

Mother 2: ...

Mother 1: It’s just a meal.

Mother 2: Of course. So when’s Bill coming home on leave?

I don’t know where that scene’s going (death by Marine?) but one woman thinks the teacher is being helpful, and the other thinks he’s after a bit of how’s your father. They’re not arguing about it, but they don’t see eye to eye either and that creates tension.

Of course, you may feel that stretching out the scene takes up to much space and isn’t worth it just to introduce Mr Trumble who is only a bit-part player. But if it isn’t worth making the scene interesting, it isn’t really worth having the scene at all. You can easily slip in information anywhere. If you want to build it into a scene then you should make sure the scene is worth  reading .

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